What's the most affordable way to successfully hunt an elk?

[jonoMT]

My $.02

You can bring the ATV but you'd be better off learning how to debone and pack out the meat. The CDoW video mentioned is good, although when I ordered it they forgot to send along a practice elk. I think the video by Outdoor Edge is little better at showing closeup shots. Unless you come to parts of MT, NW WY, or parts of ID don't worry too much about bears. While all wild animals are potentially dangerous, black bears are not near the threat that a surprised grizzly is. But I hunt in a part of MT that is *generally* not considered grizzly habitat. I worry far more about breaking a leg.

Google Earth is good but it won't show you road closures or tell you how good/bad a road is. I scoped out a great spot but found I could only drive in halfway but ATVs, etc. could keep going. It would have been fine if the area was closed to all vehicles. Allowing only some gave those hunters an advantage and also meant having to get farther from the road to actually see elk. Also, learn what windblown deadfall/new growth look like in an aerial photo. You can spend an hour trying to move one mile. While elk will hole up sometimes in it they generally don't so you're just wasting time.

Some comments about 98% of hunters mostly sticking to roads are true. I don't know how anybody can routinely expect to see elk that way. It happens but not often. Also, get a GPS and learn how to use it well. That's my favorite non-weapon-related item. The list of stuff you can throw in a pack in endless, but water/treatment/filtration is important. You can find recommendations for all that stuff on this site. One thing I'll mention is carrying an Otis or similar patch puller. Humping a rifle through heavy timber can sometimes get some dirt, bark, needles or snow in the barrel.

Jon

 

[teddy12b]

I'd just like to find a place that's out of the way and where I won't run into a lot of people. Ideally it would be next to water where we could do a little fishing too. But then again, everyone out there is probably buying the same topo map that I would be and also looking for the same ponds. Ideally I'd like to hunt wyoming, but colorado would be just fine too. My hunting partner thinks he wants to hunt them with a bow now, and that's fine but I'm a gunpowder kind of guy and am looking to use my rifle. Hopefully this trip will still work out some day.

 

[badaboom]

Hd/dvd

The cheapest way to HUNT ELK is to stay home buy a side of beef and a ELK hunting video. You might still have enough money to fill the propane tank for the BBQ. LOL

 

[silvertip-co]

See the CO elk hunt post below.

Calcs for DIY: OTC bull tags for yalls is 526, ammo 35.00 a box, gas is 1052, groceries is 526, campin is free on BLM for 14 days, elk processing is 1.00 a pound if you score. Thats pretty much it.

 

[teddy12b]

I'm currently trying to talk my hunting buddies into just wondering around on public land without a guide.

License: ~$500
Gas: $400 (divided by group, and likely to go up)
Guns & Ammo: Already have plenty of both
Food & Camping Gear: Most of it we already have. ~$250 for what ever is missing.

I'm trying to talk the guys into one person buying an elk tag, and the others buying mule deer tags. Hopefully that will keep our options open and we likely won't come back completely empty handed.

 

[esshup]

From my house to Casper, $400.00 translates into 23.4 mpg with no wiggle room.... I just bought 36 gallons of diesel last night, even with a DOT # it was $165.56.

We're planning on going out there this Fall providing that we get our names pulled from the hat for a Mulie and Pronghorn hunt. Elk will be in 2009 if we are lucky, although we've bought preference points every year that they were available.

We'll know after July 3rd - that's when the lottery is. We put in for the Grey's River area for Mulies, and around Casper for antelope. Hopefully we can pull it off in 9 days (including drive time).

It will be our first time out there as well, but I do have an ace in the hole - my cousin lives out there and he has hunted that area for the past 20 years. Good luck!

 

[3006savage]

I hunt the Flattops in Colorado, part of the White River National Forrest. I purchased a 12 x 16 wall tent 3 years ago for $600. Four of us drive out from Pennsylvania and rent a horse for the week. The horse is provided with a western saddle and we mount a saddle pannier (cost $100) when packing gear. The cost is $400, and Sombrero Ranches will deliver the horse up to 50 miles. We load the camp on the horse and travel in approx 5 hours to get beyond the road hunters. We then use the horse to pack out any game we get during the week. The first year is not cheap but after you have purchased the tent and pannier it is just the cost of the horse rental.

 

[old_heli_logger]

Over the couter bull tags are available for most of Western Oregon. Here is a link to the ODF&W

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Click on the link called:
"2008 Oregon Big Game Regulations (pdf)"

Good luck!!

 

[silvertip-co]

2x500 for tags is 1000. or 2x300 for cow tags is 600.00
gas from/to back east 1000.00+/-
groc/snax for ten days for two 300.00+/-
ammo for two 72.00+/-
water for two 25.00+/-
ibubrofen or tylenol 7.50 (altitude)
decent tent 98.00+
big tarps 37.50+/-
big game bags 37.50+/-
big game processing 1.11 per pound(after field dressing)



I hope you have all the rest of the stuff ya need to hunt, because above is as cheap as it gets.

We live here and spend about 600.00 for a ten day hunt and thats sleeping in our camper trailer.


This adds to cost but is very very nice:
Gunnison, Colorado hotel near Western State College of Colorado - Quality Inn 81230, CO074
10 days is about 550.00


Our help and g...ance is free. (cant say the g word out here as ya gotta have a DOW license to guide).

Good luck.

 

[bkondeff]

I hunt the Flattops in Colorado, part of the White River National Forrest. I purchased a 12 x 16 wall tent 3 years ago for $600. Four of us drive out from Pennsylvania and rent a horse for the week. The horse is provided with a western saddle and we mount a saddle pannier (cost $100) when packing gear. The cost is $400, and Sombrero Ranches will deliver the horse up to 50 miles. We load the camp on the horse and travel in approx 5 hours to get beyond the road hunters. We then use the horse to pack out any game we get during the week. The first year is not cheap but after you have purchased the tent and pannier it is just the cost of the horse rental.

This is an extremely oversimplified post. ONE horse will only carry about as much as two people. You can haul about 150lbs on a horse, which by the way eats about 15lbs per day of feed while you are there. You do the math. Even a cabela's Alaknak tent at 10x14 weighs 65lbs and that doesn't include the fram at another 30. Any canvas tent is going to weigh around a hundred, plus frame. So with one horse you cant even haul in a comfortable backpacking set-up for 4, let alone food, a canvas tent, cooking gear, etc.

Plus if you don't know horses well you could get hurt.

 

[Boman]

Forget the game carts because you can't use them in a wilderness area and i've never shot an elk next a trail.. Most of the time you will be dealing with blown down trees and steep country. Get a great backpack (spend the time to get a very good one) and some good boots and plan on working very hard to get your elk out.

 

[guns_and_labs]

the walk out w/game is usually much tougher than the hike in empty.

It's the hike out EMPTY that's painful!

 

[3006savage]

This is an extremely oversimplified post. ONE horse will only carry about as much as two people. You can haul about 150lbs on a horse, which by the way eats about 15lbs per day of feed while you are there. You do the math. Even a cabela's Alaknak tent at 10x14 weighs 65lbs and that doesn't include the fram at another 30. Any canvas tent is going to weigh around a hundred, plus frame. So with one horse you cant even haul in a comfortable backpacking set-up for 4, let alone food, a canvas tent, cooking gear, etc.

Plus if you don't know horses well you could get hurt.

Here is how my camp works out weight wise:

1. 69LBS 12x16 canvas wall tent
2. 22LBS Stove and pipe
3. 42LBS Fiberglass Poles
4. 35LBS Saddle&Pannier
5. 10LBS Small feed bag.
178LBS total pack weight

We carry approx 60 pounds per hunter in on backpack. This includes our cots and sleeping bags for the night.
In the morning I will ride the horse back out (while the others hunt), load the remaining clothes, and misc gear and typically walk back with the horse without carrying a pack. The pannier we use is a saddle pannier and it allows us to ride the horse when we want and also use it to pack out game. Our recent camp site is on a meadow and the horse grazes for feed and we only supplement with approx 5 lbs per day of pelletized feed. The post may have been oversimplified but I did not care to type out the boring details.

 

[norsepeak]

while it's true that you will find the elk away from roads etc. more relaxed...don't be fooled about finding elk around roads and trails. I put on 2000 miles a year on my atv and I see hundreds of elk including some very nice bulls. The elk are used to vehicles, logging trucks, fire trucks and every other rig making noise in the woods and don't pay much attention to it. I've driven within 10 feet of elk laying down and they didn't even move, they just layed there and watched me drive by. They may run off a hundred yards or so, but usually they don't spook too bad. I used to live in Colorado in an area that was fairly roaded and there were a lot of atv's in the area, and we saw a lot of big bulls within easy hiking from the trails.